Item Details

A Functional linguistic approach to the study of simplified versions of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Issue: Vol 11 No. 2-3 (2015) SPECIAL ISSUE:

Journal: Linguistics and the Human Sciences

Subject Areas: Writing and Composition Linguistics

DOI: 10.1558/lhs.35733

Abstract:

There are a large number of well-known literary writings which have corresponding simplified or adapted versions in the market, mainly designed for different groups of readers, and Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is one of such writings. The paper attempts to conduct functional linguistic analyses of the beginning paragraphs of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and the corresponding simplified versions. It is found that the simplified versions are not necessarily shorter than the original in terms of the length of the passage and the number of words. The simplification of the original text is not merely concerned with the idea but also with the language expressions. It shows how linguistic analysis can help the reader to better understand the underlying meanings of such re-writings.

Author: Huang Guowen, Chen Yumin

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